Chapter 37

37

* * * *

– ‘Teacher. When Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon told Seok to give up on art school… It might have been due to a lack of talent, but the main reason was probably Seok’s family situation. During the second semester of his second year. You might not have been interested, but Seok’s family situation was really bad.’

Late in the evening, as the sound of pencils scratching filled the air, Go Doo-han closed his eyes. In the studio, the sound of the pencil moving was overlaid with the voice of his student, Im Woo-hyun.

– ‘His skills didn’t show any signs of improvement, and his family situation was getting worse… Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon was really struggling at that time. Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon had also suffered a lot due to his family situation.’

As Im Woo-hyun spoke, he sipped on a 300 won cheap coffee, frowning at its excessive sweetness. The bitter aftertaste of the coffee lingered in his voice, which continuously flowed through Go Doo-han’s memory.

– ‘So that’s why he did it. Besides, what’s the big deal about going to art school? If he wants to do art later, he can do it.’

Even though Im Woo-hyun, Jeong Byung-gwon, and Go Doo-han were all art school graduates.

– ‘Anyway, after agonizing over it all semester, Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon must have been really struggling. He even started smoking again that day, after quitting for a long time. He probably still smokes now.’

Im Woo-hyun’s words continued endlessly, as if he were pouring out his thoughts.

– ‘Teacher, telling someone to give up on their dreams isn’t easy… Especially when it’s someone you’ve cared for deeply… Moreover, the subject was Seok. Even though his grades weren’t good, he was really diligent. He was mature and passionate. He was so talented. Everyone must have loved him, right? Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon, well, he treated Seok like a lost older brother.’

Im Woo-hyun chewed on the paper cup containing the cheap coffee while speaking.

‘So, it must have been really hard for Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon to tell Seok to give up on art school. He probably spent the entire break locked in the studio, working on his art, because he was tormented by the fact that he had crushed his student’s dreams with his own words.’

Im Woo-hyun defended Jeong Byung-gwon for a while, then mentioned that he would never tell someone to give up on art, using the example of Kang Seok. He also pleaded with Go Doo-han not to hate Jeong Byung-gwon.

After listening for a long time, Go Doo-han finally asked, a question that had been on his mind since the beginning of the conversation.

– ‘Why do you know so much about Mr. Jeong?’

Im Woo-hyun’s eyes widened in surprise.

– ‘What? You didn’t know? I’m close with Mr. Jeong Byung-gwon. We were college roommates and dorm mates.’

Go Doo-han opened his eyes, recalling the events of a few days ago. That conversation was the reason he had insisted that Jeong Byung-gwon come to the exhibition.

Jeong Byung-gwon’s eyes, which had been wavering, seemed to drift back in memory. Go Doo-han saw his own past reflected in Jeong Byung-gwon’s eyes.

Despite the differences in their circumstances and the processes they went through, seeing Jeong Byung-gwon reminded him of his failure to support Seo Ye-jin properly in the past.

What should he have done back then? Go Doo-han once again faced the unsolvable problem.

Should he have forced Seo Ye-jin to sit down and continue drawing, even though she was about to snap her pencil in despair? Was it right to let her leave the studio with the pencil in her hand?

He didn’t know the answer.

Still, wouldn’t it be better to clash rather than drift apart, as he and Seo Ye-jin had? The image of Jeong Byung-gwon and Kang Seok meeting still formed in his mind.

Go Doo-han lowered his gaze. In his hand was an old drawing. The once white paper had turned a creamy yellow over the months.

– ‘I found this while cleaning the school’s sketch room today. It’s a sketch Seok drew in the first semester of his second year. He couldn’t draw, right?’

Im Woo-hyun’s voice replayed in his mind. After staring at the drawing for a long time, Go Doo-han finally muttered.

“...He really couldn’t draw.”

A bitter smile tinged his words.

* * * *

“It’s no joke, I’m telling you!”

━ ...Really?

A skeptical voice came through the phone speaker. Professor Lee Min-hyuk nodded more vigorously, even though his wife, Choi Mi-jung, couldn’t see him.

“It really is!”

If his wife had seen it, she wouldn’t have said that. Lee Min-hyuk couldn’t hide his excitement as he looked at the photo he had received from Kang Seok.

The statue in the photo had come to life, and it was so vivid that it was hard to believe it was only worth 500,000 won, even as a down payment. The sculpture was so lifelike that it was almost unbelievable.

While 500,000 won was a significant amount, after seeing such a captivating sculpture, it felt like a mere pittance.

The red sun-drenched statue of a vine hawkmoth owl came to mind, and so did the day Lee Min-hyuk decided to take it. He regretted not being able to take it immediately due to the need to prepare to prevent any damage.

I need to show this to my wife right away!

He had taken a few photos, but they were unsatisfactory. The sculpture was three-dimensional, and the photos couldn’t capture the full impact of seeing it in person.

I’ll show her the real thing, and she’ll be amazed. Lee Min-hyuk was determined to do just that.

━ If you like it, that’s fine. But how much more did you pay?

A subtle voice came through the phone.

“Huh?”

━ You only paid 500,000 won as a down payment, right? How much more did you pay?

How much more did he pay? Before getting into the car, Lee Min-hyuk turned around. In the distance, Seok’s Furniture Store was visible.

The moment he saw the furniture store, the conversation he had with Kang Seok in the workshop came to mind.

– ‘Thank you. Thanks to you, I got such a good sculpture.’

– ‘I did what I was paid for.’

– ‘Don’t say that. Teacher. Even I can tell that this vine hawkmoth owl sculpture is worth more than 500,000 won. I learned a lot about birds from my father, who was an ornithologist, and this level of detail is unbelievable.’

– ‘Is that so?’

– ‘Yes. It’s a perfect match. I would believe it if it were the same vine hawkmoth owl I saw back then… By the way, since it’s 500,000 won, I remember it was a down payment. Now I need to pay the remaining amount. How much should I pay? I can’t put a price on a sculpture like this…’

Kang Seok’s expression was enigmatic as he listened to Lee Min-hyuk. He then shook his head as if Lee Min-hyuk had forgotten.

– ‘We agreed to set the remaining amount based on your father’s reaction, remember?’

He said he would set the price based on your father’s reaction. Lee Min-hyuk thought this wasn’t right, especially considering his father’s skeptical eye.

– ‘Why don’t we set a minimum price for the sculpture?’

Although he was a professor who spent his life reading and translating Dante’s Divine Comedy, he wasn’t completely disconnected from art. Good art should be recognized for its value. At least, that’s what Lee Min-hyuk believed. However, Kang Seok consistently repeated the same thing.

He would set the price based on your father’s reaction.

Kang Seok seemed more interested in the reaction of Lee Min-hyuk’s father, the recipient, rather than Lee Min-hyuk, the client. Why was that? Why did he want to determine the value of the sculpture based on his father’s reaction? Why did it have to be his father?

Lee Min-hyuk finally reached a conclusion.

Kang Seok wanted to convey a message to his father through this sculpture. There was definitely a message he wanted to deliver. And he believed that the sculpture would only be complete once that message was delivered.

What could it be? What message did he want to convey? Lee Min-hyuk was intensely curious. But how could he ask? He looked around for a way to bring it up indirectly.

Ah.

– ‘Is there a title for this vine hawkmoth owl sculpture?’

If there was a message, there had to be a title. The title would encapsulate the message of the work.

Kang Seok’s lips moved in response to Lee Min-hyuk’s question.

– ‘The title of this vine hawkmoth owl sculpture is...’

━ Honey? Can you hear me? Should I call you back later?

Lee Min-hyuk straightened his head. Choi Mi-jung’s voice came through the phone.

━ Honey?

Lee Min-hyuk bent down to open the car door. His thoughts had already drifted far away.

It was time to answer Choi Mi-jung, who was waiting for a response.

“No. Let me explain...”

.

.

.

The night sky, dark and overcast, stretched endlessly, like the indigo back feathers of a swallow.

Seongbuk-dong. A single-family home. In the first-floor bedroom, Lee Young-hyuk, Lee Min-hyuk’s father, lay on a cozy bed, gazing out the window, blinking.

It was a large house.

For someone who had spent his life chasing after birds as an ornithologist, it was an excessively large house. Despite its size, which was more than enough to accommodate his modest body, he owned three other houses besides this one.

‘Why do I cling to these things, which I can’t take with me when I die?’

It wasn’t money he had earned. Everything was built on the wealth his father had accumulated through hunting.

Lee Young-hyuk’s eyes, which had grown dim, were filled with deep regret and fatigue. He slowly lifted the photo he had been holding to his chest with his rough, wrinkled hands.

The photo showed a vine hawkmoth owl, half-asleep and hidden among the trees and bushes, with its eyes half-closed. Even though it was daytime and it should have been sleeping, it seemed annoyed by someone’s approach and had opened its eyes.

It was a challenging feat to capture the owl’s irritable nature.

Recalling the days when he used to take photos with a camera, a mix of emotions welled up in him. It was perhaps the only lingering regret of his long life.

If only he could see the vine hawkmoth owl one more time before winter ended. The regret lingered, but it was unlikely. His body had become too heavy to chase after the migratory vine hawkmoth owl.

Is this how he would spend his last days in this aged body?

As Lee Young-hyuk swept his wrinkled hand over the photo with a sense of loss, a faint voice came from the slightly open door.

━ You only paid 500,000 won as a down payment, right? How much more did you pay?

It was the voice of his daughter-in-law, Choi Mi-jung. 500,000 won as a down payment. A small curiosity arose, but it quickly faded from his eyes.

A few years ago, he would have perked up his ears to listen, but now he was too old and too tired to show such curiosity.

━ ...Based on your father’s reaction...? ...That’s really...bold...? ...Is that it? ...

With the curiosity gone, he could barely hear half of what was being said.

But it didn’t matter. Lee Young-hyuk, feeling bored with the passage of time, lifted the photo again. The vine hawkmoth owl, which had been napping, seemed to be staring at him from the middle of winter.

* * * *

February 14th.

A gloomy, overcast day with no trace of light. Gray sky. Under the gray sky, a businessman in a black suit. Kim Yun-seo, the assistant director of the Peony Gallery, sighed deeply.

The solo exhibition of Go Doo-han was just around the corner.

If today and tomorrow passed, the opening ceremony would be the day after tomorrow.

The Peony Gallery was bustling. Next to Kim Yun-seo, who was sighing, three more pieces of art were being installed.

Just three?

Kim Yun-seo’s expression immediately turned sour, like the feeling of being compressed in a crowded subway. Pale and drawn, she grabbed a passing employee and asked,

“Why only three? We’re missing two pieces.”

The recently arrived pieces were part of a series of five, so space for five 20-inch works had been reserved on the wall. But only three had arrived.

When she checked the progress, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Why did only three pieces arrive? Kim Yun-seo’s eyes darted to the paintings.

“Well... I was told to bring these three first.”

“No, that’s not... No. They must be heavy, so bring them in quickly. I’m sorry for holding you up.”

It wasn’t a question to ask the employee. In the midst of her daze, Kim Yun-seo reminded herself of her professional mindset. Follow orders from above, and don’t overstep with those below. That was her rule.

“No